Sunshine and Fog- it's South Dakota!

We just returned from the fabulous South Dakota Festival of Books.
http://www.sdbookfestival.com/events.htm

This year was in Sioux Falls- which has 24 miles of bike trails.... none of which go east-west, the way we needed to go from our campground to the downtown festival venues!

 But we did get in a few great rides. 

Then we headed west- Janet had never been to Wall, SD- home of the "world famous" Wall Drug. Free ice water in the 1930's transformed a small town drug store into a small town legend.

https://walldrug.com/t-history.aspx

The most compelling moment? Not the terrifying tyrannosaurus rex that tries to escape and EAT every 12 minutes.... 

Not the bobble heads....https://walldrug.com/c-58-bobble-heads.aspx

 No- what amazed us was original art including SD's much beloved native son, Harvey Dunn,- hanging on the wall.... across from the grill.  Yep, greasy dirt was building up on the frames. Can't imagine what's happening to the art itself.  But it is very accessible and some really fine art to gaze at while in line for a big, delicious pecan roll. This is the owner's view from a newspaper article a few years ago. Pretty cool.

It may be the finest private collection of Western art on free public view anywhere in the world, he said.

One small stretch of wall, facing the doughnut counter, contains more than half a million dollars' worth of fine art - including an original N.C. Wyeth painting, "The Devil's Whisper," and two of the store's dozen Harvey Dunns, "Punching it Out" and "Gray Dawn."

"There's no other place where we could put them and expose this many people to them for free," Hustead said.

The whole story is here if you're interested.
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/top-stories/the-water-s-free-but-the-art-s-worth-millions/article_ffbfd813-7078-5b17-8756-c6810175af44.html
Or
http://www.truewestmagazine.com/jcontent/living-the-dream/living-the-dream/collectibles/4325-wall-drug-of-south-dakota



But we had places to be and mile to go before we slept so we went to the Badlands National Park to see a spectacular sunset, stars without light pollution and sunrise over the amazing sites.....





or fog.

It was compelling and different. The various minerals showed pink and green and the ridges were eery against the white sky.  This is within a couple of hours of my home- we'll be back but for now, we saw the Badlands in the fog.  And didn't see any snakes.

 

Unpaved roads may be impassible in wet conditions....

And shoes may be caked with sticky, mucky goo.....

Views may be obscured.....

Ducks may be glum......

But the prairie is still lovely......

Beauty is still evident to the eyes that look. 

Kayaks in the sunset,

art by the donut counter, 

water droplets on the late summer grass.

South Dakota-

you never know what you'll get.